Reviews for Cinema Komunisto

★★★★’ – THE TIMESCinema Komunisto” is one of the most riveting, well-researched, elegantly-rendered chronicles of a fallen era to ever be captured on film – and a must-see for film aficionados. ’ SCREEN COMMENT​‘…a challenge that could have stumped even the most seasoned filmmaker: create a movie about a country that no longer exists.’ NEW YORK TIMES[critic’s pick] ‘…a documentary collage of 60 years of Yugoslavian film under Communist rule.‘ WALL STREET JOURNAL

Synopsis

Recommended as a ‘must-see’ by critics of the Wall Street Journal and indieWIRE and proclaimed as the ultimate festival film at Tribeca Film Festival CINEMA KOMUNISTO takes us on a journey through the crumbling remains of Tito’s film industry, exploring the rise and fall of the cinematic illusion called Yugoslavia.

Using rare footage from dozens of forgotten Yugoslav films, never-seen-before archive from film sets and Tito’s private screenings, the documentary recreates the narrative of a country, the stories told on screen and the ones hidden behind it. Stars such as Richard Burton, Sofia Loren and Orson Welles add a touch of glamour to the national effort, appearing in super-productions financed by the state.

Tito’s personal projectionist who showed him films every night for 32 years, his favorite film director, the most famous actor of partisan films, and the boss of the central film studios with secret police links – all tell how the myth of Yugoslavia was constructed on the screen. Fiction and reality diverged until it all collapsed, leaving behind rotting sets and film clips from a country that no longer exists.